Burton - Android Application Development For Dummies

Android Application Development For Dummies, 2nd Edition

by Michael Burton and Donn Felker

Android Application Development For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Android is a trademark of Google, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport .

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012948923

ISBN: 978-1-118-38710-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-41745-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-42190-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-43327-0 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Authors

Michael Burton is the Lead Android Engineer at Groupon. He wrote the Groupon, Digg, TripIt, and OpenTable Android apps, among others. Hes flown a project on the Space Shuttle. Hes spoken on Android application development at conferences in London, Boston, Silicon Valley, Rio de Janeiro, and elsewhere. Hes also the author of RoboGuice, the open-source dependency injection framework used by Google, Facebook, and others. Follow Michael on Twitter (@roboguice) or check out RoboGuice at http://roboguice.org .

Donn Felker is a recognized leader in the development and consultation of state-of-the-art, cutting-edge software in the mobile and web fields. He is an independent consultant with over 10 years of professional experience in various markets that include entertainment, health, retail, insurance, financial, and real estate. He is a mobile junkie, serial entrepreneur, and creative innovator in all things mobile and web. He is the founder of Agilevent, an innovative creative development firm that has done work for small startups as well as Fortune 500 companies. He is a Microsoft ASP Insider, an MCTS for .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.5 Web Applications, and a certified ScrumMaster. Hes a national speaker on topics that include Android, .NET, and software architecture. He is the author of the TekPub.com Introduction to Android video series. He is a writer, presenter, and consultant on various topics ranging from architecture to development in general, agile practices, and patterns and practices. Follow Donn on Twitter (@donnfelker) or read his blog at http://blog.donnfelker.com .

Dedication

To BugDroid.

Authors Acknowledgments

Thanks to Donn Felker for writing the initial version of this book and tossing the project my way. Heres hoping we work on many successful projects in the future!

A big thank you to the extended Android open source community, including Carlos Sessa, Manfred Moser, Donn, and Jake Wharton among others, who contributed their code, expertise, and reviews of this book.

Thank you to my great team at Groupon, Chris, Alex, Robyn, Eric, Aubrey, and David, who have pushed me to understand the Android platform deeper than I would have on my own.

And finally, thank you to my friends and family who have supported me through the evenings I spent working on this project. The loaner puppy and the per-chapter treats were all I needed to push through those long weekends!

Publishers Acknowledgments

Were proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com . For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project Editor: Rebecca Senninger

Acquisitions Editor: Kyle Looper

Copy Editor: Rebecca Whitney

Technical Editor: Krista Dombroviak

Editorial Manager: Leah Michael

Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cover Photo: istockphoto.com/Palto

Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( www.the5thwave.com )

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Layout and Graphics: Jennifer Creasey, Corrie Niehaus

Proofreader: Lisa Young Stiers

Indexer: Sharon Stock

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies